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All that glitters is not gold.
The adage turned out to be true for a 62-year-old Harare man in the trade of defrauding desperate and unsuspecting home seekers Wednesday.
What promised to be a day of rich pickings turned out sour for Lovejoy Nyamande who was arrested soon after clutching US$50 000 hard cash, proceeds from a fraudulent sale of a Harare stand.
The unlucky elder was remanded in custody Friday pending bail hearing next Tuesday.
In court it was alleged that sometime in January this year, Nyamande obtained fake title deeds in respect of stand number 635 Goodhope Township in Harare.
He also reportedly got a fake national identity card, number 29-159343-M-70 in the name of Malvern Simbarashe Gono, the real owner of the stand.
After possessing these documents, Nyamande allegedly contacted Trinity Mukewa who is into property development using an Econet line, number 0773 313 116 offering him the stand which he valued at US$50 000.
Mukewa sought the services of Embassy Real Estate agents in Harare who went to view the stand and were satisfied.
An agreement was reached for Mukewa to meet Nyamande on January 17 at the Embassy Real Estate offices in Harare for payment and processing of the agreement of sale.
On the day, Nyamambe confirmed the value of the stand and produced title deeds and a national identity card belonging to Gono.
The real estate agents then sought verification of the deeds from the Deeds office where it was confirmed the documents were fraudulent.
Mukewa kept the discovery to himself before advising Nyamande to come and collect the full payment of the stand the following day.
In the process, Mukewa tipped off detectives from the CID Commercial Crime Division of the impending transaction.
As agreed, Nyamande received the full payment on January 18 and signed the agreement of sale and acknowledgement of receipt forms but was unlucky as the detectives swiftly pounced on him.
He was searched leading to the recovery of the US$50 000 and the fake identity card on his person.
This is not the first time Nyamande has been arrested in his trade.
In 2019 he was part of syndicate that was nabbed for allegedly masquerading as police officers and stole US$33 000 and title deeds for two Harare stands.
Aged 59 then, Nyamande was in the company of Charles Kapenzi (62), Simbarashe Nyajina (25) and Antony Mudehama (22). Nhau/Indaba
